Mt. Shasta 4th of July Celebration 2008


















   

 

 
   



 

   

  

  
Please be sure to read our review of the 2009 July 4th Celebration

July 4-6, 2008   Event Held on Mount Shasta Blvd. and Castle Street.
This is a very nice July 4th event held in a one of the most scenic areas in the state.  We arrived in the area during the middle of the afternoon and checked into our motel, decided to wait until later, when it gets cooler to set up our booth.  Last year, we had to deal with very hot temperatures through four days....each day's highs ranging between 104-110.  However, this year....quite different.  Temps were in the 80's Thursday and Friday and it probably peaked around 90 on Saturday and just a bit higher on Sunday

I was located over in the Castle Street area and that part is a 3-day show.  On Saturday, booths are set up for a two-day show on the main street.  This is to allow various events to occur on Friday... a run/walk with a lot of participants and a long parade.  Very enjoyable. 

 

They really came out on Friday, the 4th and the place was alive and buzzing.  People were buying.  We had arrived at our booth around 5:30AM to complete our setup, expecting people to come early.  I guess just about all the vendors on Castle Street did pretty good.  Sales seemed to be up for this event, as compared to many of the other shows that we all have done.  In our corner, there must have been 6 or 7 people selling clothing.  Lots and lots and lots of clothing.  We were selling our wrap skirts, etc., and did have some competition.  However, our main product line is bags and we did okay. 

However, Saturday and Sunday.... a completely different story and it did not even seem like the same event.  Weather was beginning to warm up.  July 4th was very pleasant and over the weekend, temps increased.  Originally, the weather forecast had temps of 107 degrees on Tuesday and Wednesday, but that has been revised.  Nonetheless, it's going to be hotter than.... uh uh uh.  I don't like that, but we'll be longgggg gone!!!  Sales were very slow over the weekend and Sunday was even slower than Saturday.  Rough.  I guess on Saturday a lot of visitors came back to visit the booths on the main street, and we did get a trickle from that.  By Sunday, everybody had been here and I guess no reason for them to come out.  So, where could they have been?  The Lake, Mount Shasta, heading for the coast, heading home, church, get-togethers, in caves where the temps stay at 59 degrees, grandma's, skateboarding, etc.  But one thing for sure...they surely were not at the festival.  I estimate maybe 1,200 people at most on Sunday.

We just did not get that many tourists this year and we can blame that on the gas and economy.  I guess that there were around 35 booths out on the main street and 15 on Castle St.

FOOD:  The lemonade was delicious and refreshing, but was $3/$4 a glass.  Halfway decent Philly Cheese steak for a festival-can't match up against the Eastern powerhouses.  Snow cones were so-so...not enough flavor added.  Tostada okay.  Italian Sausage was okay, but I have had better ones. Went over to Black Bear for dinner on Friday, but I'm not really impressed.  It does good business because there just aren't that many restaurants around.  This place needs an Outback or at least, A Sizzler.

Anyhow, very nice show and exceptional vendors.  All pretty friendly and even Mr. Bite me behaved himself this year.